Honey is a sweet, flavorful and viscous natural food product. Due to its inherent sweetness, natural honey can be utilized to sweeten other foods and beverages. However, natural honey has a very high in calorie content and honey consumption can therefore be unfavorable for persons on calorie restrictive diets. Additionally, natural honey contains proteins which are potential allergens for sensitive persons.
Attempts to produce substitute honey products or honey replacements typically involve dilution of natural honey which decreases the calorie content per volume. The dilution of honey can result in a decrease or loss in desirable properties such as sweetness, viscosity, texture, or flavor. Further, dilution of honey dilutes the calorie content but the diluted product can still retain a significantly high calorie content as to be dietetically unfavorable. Additionally, dilution of honey does not eliminate the content of potential allergens in the diluted product.
It would be desirable to develop minimal calorie compositions having honey-like characteristics and to develop other minimal or reduced calorie compositions.